Exactly
five years ago on 9th Oct 2007 I made my account on Facebook, which
now is one in a billion. Those were the days when it was relatively new and most
people were on Orkut (remember!!-even I had an account there). Both my
daughters were on Facebook at that time and I was intrigued by this very
interactive site which was the topic of discussion in their circle of friends.
So a profile page was filled, all existing photographs were searched and a
profile picture selected, finally password set and I was ready to go (though my
daughters tried playing it smart and saying “Mom it is only for college
students, what are you going to do there…”). It seemed a little more
complicated than Orkut (btw does anyone still have an account there?) but I soon got the hang of it.
Daughters
were added first and then a few friends who were already active on Facebook.
And then suddenly one day came the deluge of friend requests, mainly from my
ex-students who were on it and had found me there (Facebook still sends out
these suggestions for friends, though now mostly they are ignored). It was
sheer joy to connect with all of them after nearly 10 years. The photographs
made me rewrite the memory I had of them as primary students and the chat
helped us to catch up on the latest. Old friends from various cities where I
had lived were found and poked (must admit that in the initial stages it was
done). And the sheer happiness of discovering old school friends after nearly
30 years (yes, I am that old) and filling in the gaps with them was the
highlight of joining Facebook. In fact I think our 30 year reunion was only
possible because all those who are now scattered all over could be contacted.
People
have all kinds of opinions about Facebook –
…how
cool …what a waste of time … I would rather be dead than caught posting a
status… that is how I keep in touch with friends and family who live elsewhere…
not good for self esteem, especially when you see some recurring travel updates
and pictures of others taken in exotic places… good for self esteem, when you have even a
little thing to share (after all even if you write exaggerated updates or Photoshopped
pictures no one will know)… it is for introverts/extroverts…there is no privacy
(there are privacy settings or option to not be there) …I have an account but I
never check it (then why it has not been deactivated so far, no one
knows/cares)… it alienates people as people now like to connect virtually thus
cutting human contact…it is a social networking site so obviously it makes you
more social and so on… I use it only to upload photographs for my friends to
see (usually a triple digit number at regular intervals)…and so on
I
have no problem with what you do on it or what you think about FB because after
all it is your space and I ALWAYS have the option of whether to see those
photographs or not, respond to you or not, click on the links you share or not,
change my privacy settings, add people as my friends or not. The point being
that there is always an option. So just as I respect your space remember my
account is my space. Respect it. If you do not like what I post use your
settings and block me or un-friend me. I have taken some long breaks when I
have been busy or just bored with Facebook. But so far have come back to it and
it has been my choice. And some day if I deactivate my account, it will be my choice.
I
personally use Facebook to share articles I find interesting (and sometimes
bizarre), express my opinion by commenting on links/articles/status updates I find
worthy of it, finding and reading some wonderful links that a few select
friends put up, rave and rant about issues that matter to me (obviously because
it is my space), express how I am feeling, keep track of birthdays (now that we have stopped memorizing anything), share important happenings (since
now in one shot you can reach most people you want to instead of writing
separately to each one), upload few photographs which will keep me visually
alive (and hopefully make a few envious) and to pimp my blog (if I may put it
like that). Oh yes and not to forget the initial purpose of Facebook of keeping
in touch with close ones especially when every gadget has an app for it...
PS : And if you liked this post do not forget to hit the 'like' button and help my self esteem go up a few notches :)
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